Song of Claire?

I finished Book 6 of the Dark Tower series, Song of Susannah and I can't even answer my own question given the cliffhanger ending of the book. Song of Susannah was that episode before the season finale. You know Born to Run, Three Minutes, Greatest Hits, and There's No Place Like Home, Pt. 1; that episode which is good, but in all honesty just resembles the five moves on the chessboard that precede the final three checkmate death blows. People who eventually have to end up together are scattered and you don't know how they'll get back together. And then with three minutes left, something starts to happen and then you have to wait to find out what. I'm somewhat fearful all of Season 5 may resemble that episode.

But there were a couple of ideas in Song of Susannah that I'm interested to see if they play out on LOST. The most interesting has to do with do-overs. Time travel has been very present in The Dark Tower series. From the very beginning we've known that there are other worlds than these. But here we are introduced to the idea of the true world, the "only one where, when things were finished, they stayed finished.” p. 176 What's more in this world you can never come back to an earlier time and get a do over. You have to get it right the first time. pp. 217-18

The new Season 5 promo and it's use of props that we've seen in the past have many speculating that some form of do-over may be where we're heading. Heck, that's been an idea ever since beardy Jack first started raving about going back. How could going back undo or make up for the bad things that happened after the O6 left, unless the O6 get some sort of do-over? I'm not a huge fan of alternate universes, but I'm willing to give TPTB one go at it. Just one though. We'll see. Will Jack and crew get on last chance to get everything right?

Another very LOST-ian idea is the role of magic/faith vs. science/rationality. Mia explains to Susannah that the world was formed by magic but then the magic receded and was replaced with machines. Now the machines are failing. Mia claims the same is true for Susannah herself. "You doom yourselves, Susannah. You seem positively bent on it, and the root is always the same: your faith fails you, and you replace it with rational thought. But there is no love in thought, nothing that lasts in deduction, only death in rationalism." p. 147 And to top it off Mia claims the only thing that can save the world is the return of magic.

Now this is the kind of explanation I'd like to see for the Island and what's going on with it. The Island is a magic place, then Dharma arrives and tries to harness that magic mechanically. As a result the magic departs. Then those maintaining the machines are purged, and now the machines are failing to control the Island resulting in rogue Smokey, moving Jacob and the inability of women to carry a pregnancy to term. And the only thing that will save it is the return of the magic. Well, a girl can hope at least. Or it could be an attempt to merge the science and the magic. That was something that happened in the Dark Tower world as well, but it failed in all but one remaining place, and the health of that place is pretty questionable too.

Finally, there's the repeated notion of twins. It arises in two key places in Song of Susannah. The first is in this duality of science and magic. Susannah calls them Tweedledee and Tweedledum in addition to rational and irrational, sane and insane. In the second instance Eddie is called the twin of Roland's childhood friend Cuthbert. But the idea isn't really so much that they are twins, but in fact the same reincarnated soul turning on the wheel of Ka.  I'm still looking for that bad twin.

I've only got one book to go in MY quest for the Dark Tower. I'm not sure when I'll get there, but I'm certain ka willing that it will be before the start of Season 6, my goal. 

Is John Locke As Naive As John Locke?




















In reading Madeline L'engle's An Acceptable Tiime I came across this description of philosopher John Locke and his view of Native Americans.

"Locke's impressions [were] idyllic and . . . a little naive. . . . The [natives] seemed to Locke to live a life as innocent as Adam and Eve in the Garden. They lived without external laws, did not buy or sell or pile up wealth. They were, Locke implied, without shame, not burdened by the guilts of the past." p. 76

This view seems to me to mirror our John Locke's view of the Island and Alpert's crew of true believers. Of course, we've seen more of the Others than Locke has, so I wonder if part of the "bad things" will merely be Locke's eyes opening to the reality of human nature and its depravity even on the Island. Maybe the real reason Locke leaves the Island is that his idyllic picture of the Island is shattered by reality. How Jack returning could help that I could not say, but Locke often looks for the easy, buck-passing solution (Sawyer and the real Sawyer), so perhaps Locke's plan to return the O6 is more mere naivete on Locke's part.

And while we're on Locke, I can't remember asking this before -- do you think off Island Bentham/Locke can walk or does he have to return to a wheelchair?

So What Did Dharma Want?



Now that the ARG seems to be on hold for over 2 months! I've got some questions.

I'd guess given the Comic Con imprimatur that the new Dharma Initiative's formation is official LOST canon. If you show up on a stage with Damon and Carlton that makes you canon to me. What's more the cause that has led to the effect of the re-formation of DI seems to be the receipt of the Chang video. So here's what I want to know:





Feel free to discuss any other aspect of the ARG in the comments as well. I personally do not regret dropping out early on, but I'm interested to see what those of you who persevered think about how the ARG will affect the LOST-iverse.